Zero Punctuation: Crackdown 2

[Misterian]

Wow, I personally doubted Crackdown games in general would be fun, from what I intitally gathered, Yahtzee, I thought Crackdown would be too easy and boring.

It might seem wierd, but your recommendation on the first Crackdown completely changes that. And I'll also take your advice on avoiding Crackdown.

And to be honest, Fable 2 and Soul Calibur 4 were the ONLY games I played and disagreed with you on, but other than that, I played games you reviewed only to find you being completely right about them.

 

[solidstatemind]

RE: the weird sound:

It's not really cellphone interference... well not directly, anyway. It's actually Bluetooth interference. [ ... ]

I strongly doubt this is correct.

Cell phones have been generating that characteristic RFI buzz for years, long before Bluetooth achieved wide adoption. Further, Bluetooth operates over the 2.4GHz band, the same bands as 802.11[bgn] wireless networking. If transmissions over the 2.4GHz band were causing that buzzing, we would have noticed it the moment we put a Wireless Access Point in our homes.

I often hear this buzz right before I receive a call or a text. My personal guess is that there's a common transceiver component that everyone uses (because it's cheap and it "works") that spills a lot of noise into a band that amplifiers can pick up at close range. If the Federal Communications Commission were actually fulfilling its charter, this sort of thing would have been investigated and fixed by now.

Believe what you wish. I can't change your mind. Note, however, that your 'deduction' (which is flawed because Bluetooth uses frequency hopping - at 1,600 hops per second- to hop over the entire 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b, on the other hand, uses direct sequence and only occupies approximately one third of the 2.4 GHz band. As a result, Bluetooth hops all over 802.11b transmissions) is no more valid than me saying, oh, that I have studied this artifacting problem for a major company, specifically in regards to when this phenomena is experienced using bluetooth hardware, and not just cell phones-- at least in this forum. We're not really presenting scientific data here.

It was more of an interesting aside anyway. If it's that important to you; fine- you're 'right'. It's not worth arguing about. Personally, I'll say no more on the subject.

What he said. I used to get that interference sound when I was in college back in.. erm... 94 or so. It always preceded a call or a text message.

See above. Although I find it interesting that you were using SMS in '94... talk about an early adopter.

 

[AceDiamond]

So basically Yahtzee spends time complaining about sequels that are too samey (whether that's deserved or not is entirely different) yet now rails against Crackdown 2 for taking place in the same city give or take the breakdown of all social structure in the attempt to tell some semblance of a story, and also changing up gameplay mechanics and introducing multiplayer that isn't just a co-op romp. Stillwater in Saints Row 2 wasn't all that different from Stillwater in Saints Row 1 and yet he thought that was an impressive game. Can't have it both ways. Simply can't. And I didn't even like the direction the game was headed in with Crackdown 2, I was hoping it was going to actually continue from the cliffhanger of sorts from Crackdown 1, but now I've warmed up to it if only in a futile attempt to spite Yahtzee and his constant hypocrisy, like his constant derision of multiplayer. We get it, you hate people. Tough shit, multiplayer gaming is a lucrative business as evidenced by the constant bombardment of ads for GODDAMN STARCRAFT II.

 

[silversnake4133]

Har, you have a text message. XD Great job as always.

 

[Squilookle]

I'm one of the biggest supporters of the whole 'don't have multiplayer at the cost of singleplayer' train of thought, but in all honesty I love Unreal Tournament anyway, because they worked SO hard to put the best bots in the business in there for the singleplayers out there, and made sure absolutely everything could be played offline as well as on. I have never played UT2004 against human opposition but to this day I still have an absolute ball with it because the bots are fantastic.

I suppose what I'm saying is a less than perfect singleplayer can be excused if the multiplayer has addictive terrific AI bots that keep you coming back... you know... years later (mmm Perfect Dark)

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Haha, the WoW sunlight joke made me laugh quite loudly.

I remember playing Crackdown with my friend a few years back. Nice to see that the game got better er is in a different city um, I mean has creative names for organizations and... Well, nice to see that another money making sequel has been released onto the market.

Thank you Ruffian Games!

 

[baseracer]

Yathzee. Good review. Except for one thing.

Put your Cell Phone on airplane mode when on reviews from now on.

 

[EX33396948]

Fuck you and fuck Crackdown 2! Review StarCraft 2 you twit!

Spoiler

P.S. I love you :3

 

[Michael826]

Anyone else get phone interference or is my phone trying to make me feel lonely by tricking me into thinking someone is trying to call me?

Yes. It was rather bizarre.

OT: Interesting, I've only ever heard of Crackdown. I do own an XBOX 360, so I might give it a look in - if my brother ever stops playing MW2. (Highly unlikely)

 

[gbemery]

How dare you Yatzee. That imp was just driving his car along and you have to go and smash his engine and flip his car. Then you just fly away. What did that imp ever do to you other than provide comic relief?

 

[xqxm]

Hey man .. You got a phonecall/text near the end.

 

[ArianaUO321]

I about lost it at the "Throwing trains at children" part... too funny, lol.

 

[Schizzy]

Yahtzee, turn off your phone when you record!

I mean, how would I know when not to call and inadvertently spoil another great vid?

 

[Klepa]

Funny episode, although I've never played either Crackdown game. Political commentary, making fun of WoW subscribers, and a cellphone interference prank which didn't deliver because NOBODY EVER CALLS ME! /wrist

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

Probably the 54th person to notice this by now, but Half Life came out a year before before Unreal Tournament.

 

[okogamashii]

I liked Unreal Tournament...

 

[jelock]

Wait, this almost made is sound like Yahtzee enjoyed the first Crackdown! Could it be there is at least one more game to add to the list with POP SOT?

I must say this does want me to go and play Crackdown again though

 

[TheSorrow1145]

Anyone else get phone interference or is my phone trying to make me feel lonely by tricking me into thinking someone is trying to call me?

I've heard that too. I think the audio stream for that section is just corrupted

 

[zeratul123]

Like world of Warcraft subscribers in direct sunlight. EPIC.

 

[zeratul123]

Like World of Warcraft subscribers in direct sunlight. Epic.